Fill Your Watercolors with Nature's Light [Hardcover]

Roland Roycraft (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 23, 2001

Anyone can learn these simple and fun methods for producing outstanding watercolor landscapes and flowers. One of the reasons that Royland's first book (Fill Your Watercolors with Light & Color - over 65,000 copies sold) has been so popular is that his techniques make watercolor Fun and Successful for a great number of otherwise frustrated artists. Roland has a gift for simplifying the process of painting into a few readily understood steps. In this book, he expands the teaching of his pouring technique and goes into a bit of the underlying structure of a painting. He presents his unique way of teaching composition that (we are told) delights his workshop classes. He then presents his three-step process of painting a landscape - masking to preserve the lights, pouring on the atmosphere and spattering the textures. Next, he shows two great techniques for painting flowers, a subject that does not appear in his first book. Also included is a chapter of fun experimental techniques that readers are sure to enjoy and another chapter that answers some frequently asked questions.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Roland Roycraft spent 35 years as a commercial artist and art director with work appearing in national publications such as Saturday Evening Post, Life and Look. He is the author of the best-selling Fill Your Watercolors with Light and Color and teaches popular watercolor workshops throughout the United States.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books (June 23, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581800398
• ISBN-13: 978-1581800395
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #566,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A power tool for watercolorists, August 8, 2001

By 

The Artist "The Artist" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fill Your Watercolors with Nature's Light (Hardcover)

Having read "enough" art technique books, I have learned that until one gets "down and dirty" trying out what is discussed in the book, then one does not actually spend the money wisely (on the book).

The same for this book. Beautiful artwork by the author. Did I say beautiful? No, BREATHTAKING, rather. However, to be able to generate beautiful artworks, the readers will need the following:

- An ability to SEE (light, dark, positive and negative space)

- Follow instructions from the book (which is PROBABLY the easy part, since it is rather well-written)

- A decent craftsmanship to finesse the final painting after the "mask and pour paints" phase of the process.

Briefly, I would think this is a power tool for watercolorists. How great the final products turn out to be will depend on the aforementioned factors.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars These techniques are nothing short of fantastic!, December 23, 2001

By 

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fill Your Watercolors with Nature's Light (Hardcover)

I love these books by Roycraft. If you love painting landscape or natural subjects, you cannot go wrong reading this book. Roycraft's techniques look simple (a lot of splashing going on) but they are controlled and well thought out. If you love floral painting you should not miss his examples here of a peony and an iris. JUST Breathtaking. I picked up so many ideas from this book.

Not only are Roycraft's paintings beautiful to see, he knows how to communicate his techniques incredibly well. I'm glad I found this watercolor artist's books.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice loose painting, August 18, 2003

By 

"annesart" (Zephyrhills, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fill Your Watercolors with Nature's Light (Hardcover)

This is a nice book for soft landscapes. However, I don't use it nearly as much as I thought I would. Check out the authors style first, and if you really like it...then the book is for you. I use some techniques, but the subject matter is a little soft for me. I didn't stay interested enought to use the lessons, but I did read it through and apply concepts to some of my own work.